house nordion love

—

[Novel]

Chapter 3 - To Zofia Castle Part 3-1: Rescuing Clair

The Southern Zofia’s Fortress is near now, it is a large enough structure that can be visible from the Zofia Castle’s tall lookout tower.  Although it is a fort, it was not built for actual combat.  It was developed and used as the facility center for military training of the royal army.  However, by now due to Desaix usurping the throne, no royal armies remain.  Lukas, as he passed the fortress a day and a night ago, saw that the place was desolate and empty.  Gray’s horse is carrying Silque on its’ back.  They are close enough to the shoreline that Alm can spot a ship faintly at the horizon in the far ocean, unbeknownst to him that it carries Saint Mila’s restoration force led by Celica.

Lukas who was walking behind Alm watches the fort come into clearer view due to them being in the thick of the forest.  He sees a flashing light from the fort, and in high alarm, cries out to the others to go hide in the bushes.  There weren’t supposed to be any human activity from the fortress, Lukas senses the danger from this.  Alm ducks and does a barrel roll to the nearest bush.  Lukas figures out quickly it must be Desaix’s men occupying the fort and informs them they probably found out about their plan with the six death medicine pills and that Clive’s group survived.  Tobin gives Lukas a magnifying portable object, he can see the signal light with more clarity, seeing the unmistakable military uniforms of the enemy army.  Gray goes deeper into the forest to conceal the horse, then moves to hide behind a bush.

Silque spots something white in the sky and asks what it is  Kliff moves over to where Silque is to see what she’s pointing at while Lukas shifts his magnifying glasses to see a double-winged white horse fluttering about, tied by a rope.  “That is Clair’s pegasus!  Our hideout was attacked!” Lukas exclaims, the urgency higher than ever.  They were able to pick out there are seven men on the opposing side: one archer and six soldiers.

Alm sends Tobin out to scout for roughly half an hour, Alm tells Lukas his decision for this was because Tobin has the most experience fighting off burglars compared to Gray or Kliff. When Tobin returns, he notices there’s a grim, cloudy look on Lukas’ face.  Lukas spills as he’s shedding tears about his last talk with Clair, who spoke highly of her older brother.  Alm asks Lukas how long its been since they left Ram and if the cave is located to the west of the castle.  Since Lukas was in the middle of grieving, he felt Alm was being unsympathetic, not seeing his real intentions of the question—thought him a monster.

Alm elaborates further that the sea’s winds blow from the west coast to the east coast, carrying the smell in that direction all the time.  That is why Ram Village has a banditry problem, and likely why the liberation army’s hideout was only discovered from that.  Lukas sees this as reasonable and calms.  They then discuss about their next course of action.

There are no dungeons in the fortress, so Clair must be held somewhere inside and probably not in a good shape.  Alm and Silque will storm the fort from the entrance on Gray’s horse and Kliff will follow along, Silque’s healing magic will be needed for Clair if she’s hurt.  Gray and Lukas will take care with the distractions while Tobin gets tasked with taking care of the troublesome archer.  Once agreed upon, Tobin sets out first and as soon his arrow strikes the enemy archer’s right arm, they go out of hiding.

Alm takes the reins with Silque and Kliff behind him on the horse, the dust kicking up as if it were a stampede.  Four soldiers were caught off guard by the sudden raid, but Gray and Lukas took them on without hesitation.  Tobin dodges the archer’s clumsy attacks and in turn shot an arrow sharply at the throat, killing them.  Alm crushes the entrance door that was tightly closed and has the horse rush up the spiral stairway to the watchmen.  Only sound louder than the running hooves was the heavy rain clattering against stone.

At the sight of a blue-haired person, a characteristic belonging to the pegasus knight, who was being harassed by a petite soldier.  Alm leaped off the horse’s back like a leopard flying at its prey, taking out the small soldier at the neck.  The second soldier was taken out, then the third soldier took out a sword and clashed with Alm.

Silque quickly hopped down and ran to Clair’s side who collapsed.  Kliff slowly follows after her and stands nearby as a guard.

“Who is that person...?” Clair is asking Silque, Alm’s battle cries can be heard in the distance fighting the soldier. While Silque was preparing the healing magic, her words that answered Clair surprised Kliff. “He is Alm, who has a mark on his right arm, who will eventually unite Valentia,”  Silque said so.  Besides Mycen, Silque knows Alm’s secret. Silque knows the secret that only I should know! Kliff opened his eyes without turning around to Silque. The eyes saw the sword that had torn into the soldier splendidly, Alm brandishes the sword as it shines brightly from the sunlight filtered through the window.

—

This is all I’ve got to say about Tobin. But, I do like gameplay/story segregation where they can be good for the long due.  If Alm’s described as a genius fighter by Lukas back in “Part 1-1: Alm, wake up”, I wonder how our genius archer Python who shoots passionately will do in comparison to novel!Tobin.

We’ve got Hercules Alm in the making and the subplot with Silque+Kliff is kicking into gear.

＊Countdown: Two subchapters left.

[Game]

Am I really going to attempt the author’s strategic raid and see how well that gets me?  Hell yes, I am.

I’ll save the soldier on the left healing tile for Silque grinding.  Idea courtesy of @mystletainn ‘s playthrough here.

Alright troopers, it’s time to roll!

First, I have Alm rush straight upwards.

From how far I can move Tobin, he can’t do a surprise snipe at the archer without the archer detecting him first, so that’s a fall-through in the plan.

This is where I’ve positioned the guys: Alm up the frontlines, Kliff and Silque not too far behind. I’m sending Gray and Tobin off to the right, and Lukas is going where he’ll be needed.

Three soldiers move to come meet us, so it’s not too much of a surprise raid, but this will do.

Nothing can go wrong.

Absolutely nothing.

Alm engages the first guy at the entrance, Alm hits both times while the spearman misses.

Should be close enough for Tobin to draw out the archer.

Everyone’s positions on Turn 2.

The soldier by Alm moves and goes to attack...

and lands a hit on Tobin, who in turn mothafuckin’ misses.

You drew the wrong enemy out!

Okay, he landed the second shot.  All is forgiven.

Tobin will be fine.

Thank you for getting Defense.  You’ll need that luck to get more lucky shots.

I’m moving Gray onto the forest tile and have him pitch for the team on enemy phase.

Gray hits twice, enemy misses.

Some battles here.

After those, I have Tobin go for the archer because dammit he has a mission to do and I will have him kill the archer no matter what.

You can do it, Tobe, I know you can.

Of course, this happens.

He better miss.

IT IS BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T IMPALE HIS RIGHT ARM, TOBIN.

This is what happens when you fail (or get screwed over by delicious RNGaiden-style).

Tobin finally found him behind the wall, good job?

I saw there was a soldier with low-ish HP so I send Silque over to play Gamble on her Nosferatu.

Dangit.

Currently, this is how my set-up’s looking...

Yeah, we’ll all be fine.  The author is a genius tactician with their besieging the fort plan to save Clair.

I have Alm go take that guy out so he can storm into the fort already with Kliff behind him for 2-range Fire magic.

Oh shit, I need to move the holy lady to heal Tobin ASAP.

And I’ve already moved everyone, so I end turn and pray.

Do you pick Mila or Duma?

Thank goodness, the archer goes for Gray who’s chilling on a tree with his horse like a champ.

Gray pitching for the team, done.  Thanks, chap.

Okay!  Time to move Silque over to heal Tobin before we have an unwanted fatal casualty on our hands.

Now Tobin won’t have to die on us.

I’m a bit worried about Gray, but I believe he’ll make it.  Half-dead?  Pshh, hakuna matata.

Oh no, you don’t, you’re not escaping me to have a romantic picnic with the oranges at the seaside!

I rush Alm over to him since Lukas can’t reach—the raid will have to wait for two more turns.

Sorry buddy, hope your picnic date won’t be too mad.  Those oranges will be grateful, on the contrary.

That soldier’s low on HP, so time to go take him out before he also runs.

...or not.

Saweet!

Since that half-dead goon is still barely hanging on there, I send Tobin to do a task.

Let’s see if he will hit, now that this one isn’t hiding behind a wall like some other coward is who has a shit-eating grin plastered on his face thinking he’s got me.

He can hit!

That’s everyone so I go end my turn—

Wait.

Wait wait, Silque is in the same spot where Tobin used to be, uh—

Oh no.

OH SHIT.

OW.

She had around 17 HP and is now down to 6 HP.

Yeah, that lady is getting the Leather Shield now. 1 DEF hurt.

Sorry ‘bout that, time for ya to retreat over to the left side for The Grind.

It can’t get worse from here, I’ve played this map so many times in both Gaiden and Echoes.

(It does, oh fuck me.)

Gray’s only halfway down, yeah he will be fine for now if I send Silque the other direction.  He can tank a bit more.

This is as far he can go, hmm.

Ideally, if Tobin keeps missing and the archer keeps hitting Gray on enemy phase, it will only end in an unfavourable outcome for me.

Am I going to risk it?

Hey, if the novel author didn’t take it slow with the raid, I’ve gotta try the same, right?

It sure is going so damn well so far.  The novel author is a genius player, they’re a goddamn savant.

Out of his treehouse Gray goes, hope the horse didn’t fall on him.

I moved Silque to the left as I said I would.  So no healing for Gray if he needs it.  Gray has the MOV advantage if he needs to highspeed out of there though.

I’m still determined on Tobin taking out the archer, so I’m going to keep trying and beat this map through the skin of my teeth.

Oh, flummery...

...Sooo, how was the bathroom break talk while you two kept missing each other over the wall like a pair of blind shitheads? Having fun?  Good?

I decided just in case Gray needed back-up, I send Lukas after him.

Enemy phase now, and the archer moves to attack...

Oh lord.

Please miss.

Yes!

Silque waddles her way to the destination, ready to suck the life out of that sleeping soldier on the heal tile so she can regain the HP she’s lost thanks to the dickhead archer.

After that...

Gray’s going to be the bro and whittle down on the archer’s HP so Tobin can pick him off.  That heal tile bonuses are a bitch, so let’s help him out.

Who will win: the fully charged and healthy archer or a half-dead horseman?

He’s going in for a poke!

And a horsey kick!

Dickhead Archer is not cackling like an evil bastard anymore!  Get a surprise attack to the rear, hell-buddy.

The shaken up dickhead archer retaliates.

Gray’s now quarter-dead, oh shit.

Maybe this was a bad idea.

Gray doesn’t land his second attack.

Almost there.

Archer got pissed off that Gray horse squashed his lunch by the back door, I guess.

Tobin got his two hits in a row.  Finally.

Almcules now get to barge in!

End turn.  The top soldier attacks Alm.  The archer focuses on healing instead of attacking anyone.

(I’ll make a point to mention it was this turn I made a savestate, for reasons you’ll see why in a few moves...)

I move Kliff up to get the weak soldier’s health to go down.

Now Alm can finish him off.

And I believe I have an Almcules in the making in my game file, too.  Wowee.

Three times in a row, that’s magnificent.

It’s our day, Tobin.

You get the prize on his head.

Nail him right in the throat.

...and he misses.

Dickhead is not dying this turn, are you kidding me.

OWW!

He heard us talking flummery.

. . . This was mission impossible from the start.  I applaud the author for achieving this level of god-tier nonsense.

I.  Will.  Have.  Tobin.  Kill.  That.  Dickhead.

Gray!  Come save the day and put me out of my Tobin-is-being-a-shit-archer suffering.

...oh right, well, let’s hope he makes it.

This was the most intense moment of my life of this map.

Yes, yes, yes!

Now let’s have you either kill him or Tobin will—

No!

No!

What!

(FE2 Mila Turnwheel: 1)

Boy, the risk I took was calculated but am I bad at math.

Jak can’t play faiaa hellmblem.

Reset.  Alm’s delicious LV6 is gone now, too.

Ouch.

Are you happy now, dickhead archer?  Ordering some pineapple pizza for your kill?  Back to your cackling lil shit self behind the wall?  And Tobin doesn’t know what the bloody hell happened.

At least we’re saving ourselves and Tobin from Tobin’s haunting FE2 ending.  ...So far.

[Game]

Instead of doing Alm/Kliff’s section, I try to take care of the archer first.  In case I needed to savestate abuse (fortunately I didn’t need to this time).

I have Gray take another risk: attack the archer.

The archer misses!  This is going well.

Gray being the bro again by leaving the kill to Tobin.

Yes!!  The revenge dish has been served!

Archer’s out.  Victory’s a sweet satisfaction after all that trouble.

The author wasn’t kidding about the “troublesome archer” bit.  Wish it had gone much more smoothly than it had.

I have Kliff do his thang over again.

I wonder what Almcules’ new Level 6 stat gains will be?

And not enough exp to get that lvl up.

Next, I have Silque attack the sleepy soldier with black magic.

I end turn... and this should be the phase where Alm will have enough exp to level (even if it’s only a little).

The injured guy moves to the center heal tile, the other punk moves in to attack.

Awright!

ALMCULES WILL BE THE ONE TO SAVE VALENTIA.

He’s the demigod man who will inspire all.

And still inspires our boy, Kliff.

I’m getting a Super Kliff run.

Only the top dude remains.  Is he feeling brave on taking Almcules on?

I have Alm charge.

So much for having traded off Power for Speed, bud.

Good to see he’s still fearless.

That’s a wrap, folks!

From turn 9, I just grind Silque up without any usages of savestates. Got her a single level with points in magic and skill.

By turn 38, as I was sending Kliff over to finish the guy before the map kicks me out at turn 40, Silque manages to land enough chance-feratus to kill him.

Time to get Clair and the Lightning Sword!

I still have a sweet spot for FE2 Clair’s characterization, as much as SoV Clair’s one of my top favourite female characters from Echoes.

Bolt, get!

Traded the Leather Shield off to Silque, boosting her Def from 1 to 4. Alm gets 15 ATK from equipping the Bolt.  Hope his father Zeus is proud.

The roster’s stats update:

—

Conclusion: Fun imitation, terrible battle plan.

I won’t be doing play-by-plays that often, but whenever I have the time for these lengthy posts, I can give it a shot with more imitations.

To be continued...

I’m not quite sure how to train/deal with Kliff as a unit yet, but I’ll level him decently for now.  At least he can promote at this point.

Alm and Luckas both get luck.

The last squeezed in level ups from the first dungeon encounter.

Only two whole lines and the author gave her such a huge, important role in the story, god damn.  I find that vastly impressive.  I sincerely wish we got more of her angle in Shadows of Valentia in one manner or another.

Just for funsies, I decide to go up to the Mila Statue and see what the game’s RNG first class picks suggested.  I got: Mercenary Kliff, Cavalier Tobin, and Soldier Gray.  

Now it’s hellbent on Merc Kliff, Archer Tobin, and Mage Gray after 5 more times of talking to the statue-thing.

Anyway, I stop goofing around since I didn’t confirm any classes for them — least not juuuust yet.  I will only proceed after I dig out what the novel has them promoted into...

—

[Novel]

Chapter 1 - Liberation Army Part 1-3: Mysterious Girl Silque

[ Warnings for mild blood. ]

Clair’s capture and Mathilda’s disappearance following it are still unknown to Lukas, that it may be too much to bear once learned.  Escaping from Mycen’s eyes, they set to march from Ram without waiting for dawn, not getting any sleep.  They stop to rest north of the woods because Lukas’ legs were sore and the three villagers were starting to lag behind, Alm was able to keep up the pace without delay.  Straight north is the coastal cave and they felt an evil aura from it.  Alm explains the burglary problem, which was why he accused Lukas of being one, since their hideout was so close by.  Within moments, shadows dart out from the bushes and surround them.  The thieves put up a fight until screams were heard, two bandits were killed the remaining four grew cowardly and ran away in the direction of the cave.

Lukas, Alm, Gray, and Tobin take off after them.  Kliff watches then talks to himself in a quiet yet heavy voice.  “I know Alm’s tragedy, no one can change his destiny.  It will be a huge tragedy that will impact the world.”

Kliff heard stones falling from inside the cave and he went in the rift, the cold, damp air was felt in the darkness and he could not see, Suddenly there’s a flame in close proximity from a torch held by a hand. The first thing he saw was a girl’s face being illuminated, and there’s a bandit holding her hostage with an arm around her neck, threatening to kill the priestess if he took another step. When Kliff did hesitantly move a little, the bandit makes a display by pressing the dagger’s edge to the girl’s throat that he was serious about the death threat.  Immediately, Kliff drives his sword into the bandit’s thick arm, forcing him to let go of the poor priestess who then hid in the dark and ran away.  The torch’s flame blew out as the burglar and Kliff got engaged in a fight.  The thief slashed his dagger into Kliff’s stomach giving him a deep cut and at the same time Kliff manages to knock the enemy down, disarming him.  Ignoring the pain and the bleeding, Kliff went over quickly to slam the hilt of his blade against the back of the bandit’s head to dispose of him, then Kliff collapses on the ground.

The girl comes back out, rushing over to Kliff’s side.  She says her name in a prayer in the service of Mila and to get Mila’s protection upon the injured villager to heal him.  A ball of light surround Kliff and he was surprised to see no scar remaining on his belly after Silque was done with her white magic. The others show up after defeating the bandits from where they were and went to thank Silque for her assistance.  Tobin says helping a priestess is the highest honor.  She volunteers to go with them as a Sister of Mila which was met with refusal from Lukas who warns her that liberating Zofia is their mission, that if she doesn’t want to lose her life in the conflict, it’s best to stay out of it.  He also brings up that she may also be an enemy. Gray grabs at Lukas, hoisting him off the ground with his strength, yelling at him they should bring her along because she helped heal Kliff and she would be a valuable vitality to the team.  

Silque politely interrupts, thanking them for their thoughts and concerns, she explains that she got there due to the Mila Shrine deep within the cave and she was visiting to do her duties as a priestess.

She guides them further inside to an area dimly lit by sunlight through the small peephole through the rocky side.  The morning sun’s light sweeps in softly like snow, illuminating a Mila statue and two springs by the base.  Silque goes over to the fountain to turn the hand knobs and calls Gray up to be first.

Gray decides on the battle path of a knight and cleanses his hands in the fountain water as per the ritual.  Silque starts the rite with a chant - in power and will, may Gray rise as a knight in the blessings of Mila and Duma.

(Yes, Duma. 「ミラとドーマ」is in there in the text.)

Threads of light begin to wrap around Gray like a yarn ball until it looks like a full cocoon.  There are faint screams and the underside of the light cocoon gets stained with blood. One of Gray’s muscle tendons were cut as a mid-process side effect of taking in the blessings (it gets fully healed afterward).  Silque summons a horse.  Gray comes off the stage with a more beefed up body fitting of a knight’s stature. 

(Don’t ask me what the bloody hell happened with Gray.  I thought he was getting turned into a centaur while reading it...)

Tobin and Kliff both get up on the stage after Gray, going into the rituals one after another.  Tobin decides on the bow style, blessing him the way of an archer.  There’s a tormented feeling going high-speed in his dominant arm’s muscles that only last some moments.  Kliff wishes for magical ability and prowess, making him a mage.  Cliff gets a sharp headache that was difficult to bear with until it was over.  They step away from the stage to get a feel for their newly adjusted bodies and group hug each other and celebrate in joy.

Lukas puts his hands together to pledge in silence, sending a prayer where he swears to free Zofia.  Silque cleanses her hands for the fourth time and looks over to Alm, asking him if he will also volunteer for the promotion.  Alm does not answer as he and the statue stone are having a staring contest, and he feels it deep within his gut that it is not that time yet.  He wasn’t fascinated by the pain of the promotions, and he doesn’t fault his friends for their desperation [on wanting to gain power and will]. Alm believes that initiation came from either the Mila’s servant or the Goddess herself, so he listens to it and tells Silque this.  

The morning sunlight gets blocked from the outside from falling rain.  Silque has some symbolism monologue about rain equating either the heaven’s joyful tears or the rain of sadness over Alm’s future and believes it may be the latter. She reminisces on the reason she swore herself as a Sister of Mila - it is to protect Zofia and the Mother.  She then tells him, “Sir Alm is a special person, I vow to serve him for life.”

Kliff watches Silque’s expression with unease, he casts his gaze downwards and chews on his fingers.  In the cultural custom of Ram Village, it is a behavioural sign of jealousy and troubled love.

—

[Game]

I’m going to cheer on for Kliff becoming a strong boy.  He hurt a damn man.

Okay!  So I’ll go promote Kliff into Mage, Tobin into Archer, and Gray into...

. . .

?fuck the What.|What the fuck?

But.

Wait...

This knight... 

Freshly Buff Binch On Mila Steroids gets a horse.

Stay tuned on: How long will I use him as a unit for when Mathilda and Zeke exist?

The being in pain from getting promoted thing makes some sort of sense when you factor in the gameplay stat gains, so I guess that’s what’s going on there.

Doesn’t look like stat booster springs were used, so it’s freedom of my choosing.  I won’t use them yet until I pick up Clair and do some grinding.

For their promo gains:

Mage Kliff gets +1 SKL, +2 SPD, and +6 HP.

Archer Tobin gets +1 STR and +1 HP.

Knight Gray gets +1 SPD.

Posting these stats for reference to compare for when I go grind.

—

＊Note: Chapter 2 covers Celica’s departure, so I’ll be skipping it to Chapter 3 where it starts with Clair’s rescue.  I’ll get back to Chapter 2 for Act 2.

Is that you Clueless Tobin— oh that was Kliff.

Save for Alm being unable to get Mycen’s answer in SoV, the rest of this scene remains closely the same.  Pretty straightforward.

I wonder how the novels introduce the scene?

[Novel]

Chapter 1 - Liberation Army Part 1-2: Alm, wake up

The sea is mild at the cape, the fish and seaweed well groomed all year long.  The faint plum smell - thanks to the sea breeze - lead an exhausted, sore-footed Lukas to find the well-hidden village.  Lukas uses the moon to tell time at night, and it’s normally the early sleeping hours.  Nonetheless, Lukas pushed through the thick forest to enter Ram, his message could not be delayed, not even at this late hour.

He visits a hut (house), asks where Mycen lives, and that’s when three people suddenly show up, they felt Lukas was a threat so they seize him up so he couldn’t escape.  A fourth one shows up with a sword, accusing him of being a thief.  Lukas thinks he must be around sixteen, the roundness of his face makes him look younger.  He also notices how they dress — having rough clothing that’s unique to farmers, but also having leather and small armour pieces that are suited for combat.

The boy with green hair and steady, fierce green eyes steps closer towards Lukas, who’s trying to plead innocent of ever stealing anything they accuse him of.  Alm says afterward, “I do not show compassion even to a thief.”  He learns their names from them talking to each other and they decided to bring him before Mycen.  Eventually, he regains freedom of his limbs and in the meantime notices and was captivated by Alm’s bare right arm having a cross mark on it. Lukas thinks Alm would be a great addition to their liberation army.

 Lukas was taken inside the house where he sat on a woven rug near a fireplace, while Mycen’s sitting in a chair made of pine trees.  The four boys are just standing around, while Alm’s the farthest away.  Mycen sheds some tears for those killed and the downfall of Lima IV, and laments that he was a passionate king who loved and embodied the soul of Zofia. Lukas then springs the story, bringing up their soldier companion’s suggestion to form the Deliverance with Mycen and asks him to join.  Mycen does not respond for a while, then refuses.  “I cannot lend my power,” he had said and Lukas couldn’t believe Mycen’s cold words.  Alm, too, was surprised by what his grandfather had said and tried to contest it, saying it was he who taught him all he had to know about swordsmanship, that no other could match his skill. Mycen makes a show of collapsing into his chair, saying he’s nothing but a relic of the past, that he’s just crumbled stone and weak — not powerful anymore to fight for their cause.  Lukas and Alm thought this to be a lie.

When pressed on why he refuses, Mycen brights up the old tale on how he was banished from the Zofia Castle by Desaix, calling it a myth and that Mycen actually left on his own accord.  He was tired of the fighting, so decided to move to Ram for a peaceful and modest way of life.  Lukas isn’t quite convinced, but leaves the conversation at that.  Lukas stands up, says he will show Mycen and the boys the army’s hideout, still persisting that Mycen must join.  The boys get ready to follow, except Mycen still doesn’t budge and says how much of a terror Emperor Rudolf is to further his reasonings.  Alm speaks up on volunteering to go in his grandfather’s place, however, Mycen says he is still immature and that the most he can do is protect the village from a burglar.  He then says to Lukas, “let’s prepare your bed, sleep plenty, leave the village tomorrow afternoon and tell your comrades that the holy knight Mycen was a miserable guy.”

Lukas was still in disbelief over what happened and dejected that neither Mycen nor Alm would be joining.  He was led to a small cabin in a separate building, but doesn’t give his soft bedding a glance.  Not long after the lights in Mycen’s house shut off, four shadowy figures slid into Lukas’s room and Alm says he’s ready to lose his life for Zofia to liberate the country, and that Gray, Tobin, and Kliff are his best friends who’ve trained with him in swords, spears, and bows.  Lukas initially wasn’t sure about the other three but gives in on having them go along.  They all get dressed in night clothes and sneak out of the house during the night and hide among the thickets to stay out of anyone’s sights.  

Mycen watched them go from his window in his own home without them noticing, and muses to himself that things will finally change and how much they will struggle from then onwards.  He also despairs that he cannot even pray to wish Mila’s protection upon Alm, knowing full well his grandson’s secret and that Alm will only get sorrow in his path.

—

Makes me look forward to seeing what scenes get heavily fleshed out — or contrasts — with Gaiden’s established events in-story.  Pretty neat stuff!

The next novel part covers the Thieves’ Shrine, so back to the game.

[Game]

Anyhoosies, I recruit the three villagers and go leave Camp Ram Rock.

And we’re off to an odd start, everyone’s hitting which was the total opposite of my Gaiden experiences before where mostly everyone except Alm missed.

Lukas strikes ‘em like a lightning bolt!

I spoke too soon.

...Twice in a row, thanks, Gray.

(Alm also got +HP, it went by too quick to screencap.)

My band’s first level ups!

Kliff, inspired by Alm’s three stats gained on his first level up, follows his example.  This is... pretty ironically canon to the novel’s presentation of their relationship.

(Not sure why the Defense line disappeared, but to make certain he did get +1 DEF, I checked him.)

Kliff’s bases:

Yup, he’s got it alright.

Lukas is going to become Leus Zeukas at this point...

Down to the last guy on the healing tile inside the fort, I move Alm to block the passage in hopes he’d take him out quickly after. ...only to have RNG kick my ass with six turns of a dodgefest and the bandit guy eating invisible oranges to heal in front of our hardy green bucko, catching him off guard to miss a bunch of times.

Finally.

—

Tumblr is being fickle with photo uploading today, so I’ll stop it here for now.

To be continued...

My Motives (a.k.a. why am I doing this) 

This run is based on Fire Emblem: Gaiden’s two-parter novels that were released back in 1993.  Scans of illustrations can be found starting here, the rest are linked from there for those interested.

After @azebraslife ‘s discovery posts about the craziness that is Silque+Kliff subplot being half-siblings, Kamui dying to a necrodragon, possessed!Delthea killing Luthier and snapping out from that…

I meant to record my in-depth findings/summaries from what I read so far off my twitter live log in June but forgot to write them down as more than just quick blurbs.  This liveplay event will help me on being continuously motivated to read these books, from start to finish.  So I’ll be using my posts to record these summary translations, so expect those inserted throughout my LP entries.

Which is OK, the novels are easy enough to read as a beginner for the most part and makes for a fun experience.

It’s time to dig whatever hidden gems there are (and there’s plenty, I’m sure).

Rules, to keep myself organized and for followers to know what I’m doing:

(1)  Whoever dies in the novels dies, and stays dead.  No exceptions.  If you know exactly who dies from the scan posts I’ve made... a~yup, those will be dying at the same story/battle points whenever possible.

(2)  To branch off from 1, if revival springs are used, I will use them for that character to be revived from the dead.  AFAIK, the author didn’t use any, but I’m hoping for a pleasant surprise.

(3)  I’m allowing myself the old-fashion method of the Mila Turnwheel — save states.  Someone dies when they aren’t supposed to?  Reset.  There’re likely other scenarios I’ll keep a mind for when replicating novel events in my play.

(4)  Whatever the novel does — give certain classes to villagers, equip certain items to units, kill a boss with a certain strategy, choice recruitments, lionhead statboost uses — I must replicate those events and actions in my run, thus making it a challenge.  If something’s almost or actually impossible, well... I’ll figure a way around it by having the next closest thing to it.  If nothing’s specified, I’ll use my own discretion (and hope it doesn’t conflict later).

That’s the basis, for now.  I don’t want to restrict myself too tightly so I’ll be a little more flexible — unless, of course, the novels dictates otherwise

The Game

Okay!  Now with that out of the way, let’s begin.

I’ll be going Easy Mode for the ease of training female mages to level 20 to not be hellish again like on my first blind run.

And now... we get to Act 1.

But wait!  The novels have a couple of things to say before I can truly start.

It has a backstory and some pre-game exposition with our favourite Deliverance gang—their own Rise of the Deliverance DLC in novel form.  Let’s have a look.

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[Novel]

Prologue:

Greek mythology-esque poetic literature that dragons are gods and how their actions affect weather/nature.  A roar brings the rain and lightning storms, humanity questioning why the heavens are always angry.  As the two dragons have always fought as if they were born to, and birthed Valencia to be a reflection of their souls (North vs South fighting mirrors the Duma vs Mila conflict).

It gives a history lesson of how Rigel and Zofia came to be, describing Duma and Mila like oil and water put in a single vase, eventually growing murky and bad as it mixes from being stabilized prior. And now Valencia faces the worst war in its history.

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Chapter 1 - Liberation Army Part 1-1: 6 Fake Death Pills

[ This entire part is pre-game, contains graphic depictions of events. Warnings for characters contemplating suicide, gritty themes, blood, and graphic descriptions of murders. ]

Starts off with a visible blood splatter on the polished stone floors of Zofia Castle, the military fill the halls leading to the throne room.  An old man with pale skin, has long, hairy legs, and a long white beard, sits on the tall golden throne with a sword lodged in his bleeding chest.  King Lima IV stabbed by none other than Desaix.

Lima IV still draws breath, barely living as he’s groaning painfully and flailing an arm searching for support (but gets none).  His last words condemn Desaix for being ambitious, having stolen the sword of the royal family which he had taken out at the scene as his second sword.  (The royal sword is apparently forged with steel.)  Desaix mocks the king, and his army begins to chant as he takes the next course of action.

The royal sword was then swung to behead Lima IV, the bloodied head rolls to the stone floor, his half-opened eyes looking up at Desaix with resentment.  The usurper declares the rest of the living royal family to be thrown into dungeons or killed.  The defense rebellion broke out immediately after and utterly failed, their numbers whittled down brutally.  Desaix’s reformed royal army heed all responsibility on throwing rebels and other captives in the dungeon (which hasn’t been used for many years in the peaceful kingdom of Zofia).

The anti-Desaix faction’s numbers continue to decline until six (named) knights remained with very few others who were still fighting vigorously.  It is revealed that the six are Clive, Mathilda, Clair, Lukas, Python, and Forsyth.  Eventually, they were captured and got locked up in the cold dungeons.  Frustrated by their circumstances, Clive grieves that death is preferable for the sake of their knightly pride over being tortured by the usurpers.  An old(ish) soldier with graying hair starts talking to Clive (he is the generic looking man in the first illustration).

The six really want to die, as they’re depressed, but the generic soldier makes a deal with them: drink the 6 “death” medicine pills he had made (and calls them lucky he has that many), which will put them in heavy sleep for four hours.  He’ll disguise himself in the enemy’s uniform, cart their “dead” bodies to the graveyard catacombs full of Terrors (the Deliverance Hideout), and buy them time to rebuild forces to liberate Zofia.

He calls six names, the novel describes each one as the following: Clive, the young chief knight, Clair, the Pegasus Knight who was rewarded good luck by the gods for riding a temna, Lukas, a hot-blooded soldier whose spear strikes like a lightning bolt, Forsyth, his character is different from Lukas, whose calm judgment is true, Python, a genius archer whose bow technique is clear [and shoots] with anger, and Mathilda, the female knight who has a brave soul, as beautiful as the night sky, and is as good as Clive.

Clive rejects the offer, shouting it won’t fly with them as knights, still insistent on preferring death.  Mathilda and Clair nod in agreement with them.  A tearful Forsyth insists on all of them dying together as was their knightly vow if it came down to it, the gray-haired man calls them foolish.

The soldier persuades Clive and the others a little more, until finally, Clive makes the first move on reaching for the “death” pill, which then the other five immediately follow suit.  The man tells the knights about Mycen, a holy knight who was banished by Desaix ages past and currently living in Ram, a village located at the cape of the southernmost tip of Zofia.  He tells them to form the liberation army together with Mycen and free Zofia from the hands of Desaix.  The six proceed to swallow their pills and “died” on the spot.

The consumed medicine causes a foul odor to fill the prisons, signaling some had died to the unaware.  The guards drag their six bodies out of the dungeons, sending them to the caves on the far coast from the castle. 

Upon waking, they salvage the caves for weapons, arrows, armour, and garments.  They also attempt to cover up the cave’s entrance with rocks and leaves to keep Desaix’s men from finding the location again.  Lukas was chosen as the messenger because he can hide himself the best from being captured, he is given a map of Zofia that was found and the journey would take three nights.  Lukas and Forsyth hug it out before patting each other’s backs with fists, then Lukas departs.  Clair follows Lukas out of the cave and mentions she is going to find her pegasus.

Forsyth and Clive have strategy talks while waiting for Clair for return and talking about accommodating Mycen.  Python’s polishing his arrows.  Mathilda returns with urgent grim news that the royal army has found their hideout, rushing them to go deeper into the thin, narrow caves.  Meanwhile, Clair did not hear the loud distant yells from Desaix’s army descending upon the caves, chasing her fellow soldiers.

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[Game]

Whew, apologies for the length so far.  It was to set up the atmosphere of how the chaos will unfold in the future.

If Gaiden’s character endings weren’t potentially depressing enough on their own, we get them from the very beginning...  

So I suppose from that cliffhanger, that was how Clair and Mathilda get captured, which is different from Shadows of Valentia’s depiction where Mathilda was taken hostage before Lukas left, and Clair got kidnapped after his departure for Ram.

These fills in the fe2′s story gaps are interesting to note (as well as the author’s portrayals of the RGB trio’s personalities).

Okay, back to the game...

Act 1 will begin in the next post.  (This one is already long enough, and the next part’s 6 pages long.  In comparison, part 1-1′s was ten pages long.)

To be continued...

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